I am glad you have decided to consider the bacteria borrelia burgdorferi as a potential cause of your symptoms.

You should get a western blot IgG and IgM, test #188 and #189, through Igenex lab in CA....www.igenex.com.. call for free test kit with prepaid fedex label. All the paperwork you need comes with the kit, including a Dr's order form.

Do not listen to your Dr when he tells you he can run a lyme test for you through your local lab.

99% of Dr's know nothing about lyme disease and that includes how to recognize it, test for it, diagnose it or treat it.

The test will cost you a total of $200...prepaid with credit card or check. they do accept medicare. Igenex will send you a receipt so you can send it in to your insurance.

99% of Dr's think that an ELISA/lyme screen/lyme titer/IFA is good enough, but it misses up to 75% of cases of lyme. Lyme experts do not recommend using it at all.

Even western blots done through other labs will miss most cases of lyme, so don't waste your time or money.

There is no lyme test that is 100% foolproof....however Igenex is by far the best. They are a reference lab specializing in lyme and tick borne diseases. their testing methods are superior to what the other labs do.

Igenex tests for 14 IgG and 14 IgM bands. other labs only test for 10 IgG bands and only 3 IgM bands. they leave out some very important species specific bands which makes their testing very inferior.

It is very important for you to know that you should get a copy of your lab results from your Dr right away. Post your band results here and on lymenet.org's Medical Questions board.

Unfortunately, Dr's know so little about lyme that if your results say CDC negative and Igenex negative, they will automatically tell you that you don't have lyme....which is absolutely wrong.

That is just a reporting criteria, not diagnostic criteria.

You should compare your band results to the info by these 2 lyme experts......

http://www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/B_guidelines_12_17_08.pdf

on page 7 of the above paper, read the western blot info....very important. Also lots of great info in this paper.

also....

http://www.drcharlescrist.com/testing.htm

in the above info, lyme literate MD, Dr C explains the western blot and what is significant.....very important too.

It is also very important to know that lyme is actually a clinical diagnosis....means it is based on history and symptoms...and can be supported by labs but doesn't have to be. Dr's do not know that lyme is NEVER ruled out based just on a lab test.

Remember that FMS and CFS are just syndromes.....sets of symptoms given a new name because Dr's couldn't figure out what caused it......and everything has a cause.

I applaud you for trying to find the cause. Many of us have found a chronic borrelia burgdorferi infection (an other associated coinfections such as bartonella, babesia, ehrlichia, etc) to be the cause of our symptoms.

I'd be glad to help you in any way that I can.

Good luck.
[This Message was Edited on 05/02/2009]
[This Message was Edited on 05/02/2009]